


Phone Call Interlude #2

by Mysana



Series: The Extraordinary Life of Darcy Lewis (Much to her Fathers' Worry) [18]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, The Science of Deduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 17:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10858410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysana/pseuds/Mysana
Summary: Darcy talks with her parents - Christmas is coming!





	Phone Call Interlude #2

“Hey Papa,” Darcy said, laying in bed looking at the ceiling. The tension that had been thrumming in her veins had finally released. Tony hadn’t screamed at her, or told her that he didn’t want her, or any of the unlikely scenarios that had been running through her head for the past week.

“Hi Darcy,” Papa said, sounding out of breath but still amused, “finally stopped procrastinating?” There was a crash and Papa grunted. Darcy laughed at how accurate he was at guessing her actions.

“Yeah,”

“Well, I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” Papa said, Darcy heard him grunt again, then she heard him shout, “Sherlock! Take care of him! I’ve got Darcy on the phone!”

“Yes John!” She heard Dad distantly reply.

“Anyway,” Papa continued, “good news is that Hamish is doing well and can join us for a week at Christmas. Bad news is that Mycroft must’ve been feeling left out so he bought tickets to New York.”

“How the hell did know?!” Darcy exclaimed, Uncle Mike always seemed to know when something important was going on.

* “Well. If I had to hazard a gu-ugh!” Darcy waited semi-patiently as she heard Papa drop his phone. She sat up and tried to balance a pencil on her finger as she listened to the background fighting. After a few minutes of grunts; slaps of impacting skin; and stomping feet; Dad picks up the phone.

“Hello Dumpling, John is patching up one of the idiots who got himself stabbed-“

“You stabbed him!”

“-so I’ll be talking to you for the next 7 minutes until the ambulance arrives. Where were you?”

“Hi Dad, um, I was asking how Uncle Mike knew to come to this Christmas.”

“Hmm. Try and deduce it for me.” Darcy sighed, Dad always did this. He wanted her to try and get to the answer herself, which was more memorable and helped her to improve her deduction skills but sometimes, she really wished she could get a straight answer from him. That said, she knew better than to try and fight it at this point. Dad _would not budge._

“Okay let’s see…” Darcy took deep breath as she tried to sort out her thoughts. “Uncle Mike either learned the ‘big news’ directly or indirectly.” Darcy knew that Dad would tell her if she was going the wrong way but he didn’t say anything so she tried to continue. “Considering the fact that he’s trying to train his protege right now, is distracted with Uncle Greg, and is most likely still obscenely busy - as usual- he probably didn’t learn it himself. That would’ve taken a fair bit of time if not effort.” _What else could she guess? Alright, in all likelihood he learned it indirectly. Therefore: he had a spy in Hydra, Dad or Papa had told him, he had a spy in Stark Industries, Darcy’s personal spies told him, his spies in (what was left of) SHIELD told him. There was probably more but she had to start somewhere. Dad wouldn’t have told Uncle Mike because he would prefer to taunt him about it. Unless Dad thought Darcy was at risk… Oh. But Darcy could be at risk._ “Dad?”

“Yes Darcy?”

“Did you tell him?”

“Good try, please explain your reasoning.”

“Um, let’s see… You knew, therefore you could be a source, I thought you were the least likely possibility so I was trying to eliminate you first-“

“That’s not an efficient method Dumpling, I’ve told you this.”

“But it’s easier to do if it’s more likely and if I can eliminate it, then I have a smaller field of possibilities.”

“Yes, you’ve said that before,” Dad sighed, “but you need to focus on the most likely ideas first. If you are in a dangerous situation and only have a limited amount of time it can make a the difference between life and death.”

“Okay,” Darcy sighed, she already knew that she wouldn’t be any good at deduction in the field. She didn’t do it as quickly or easily as Dad or Uncle Mike, she had to focus on it. That said, Dad wasn’t going to accept her doing anything other than her best. “Fine.” Darcy took another deep breath, recentering herself.

 _What evidence could I collect that told me that Dad_ didn’t _tell Uncle Mike? One, Dad hates to tell Uncle Mike things. Two, there is no clear and imminent threat to my life that could cause Dad to panic - unless there is something I missed. Three, Dad and Uncle Mike don’t talk regularly so they might not’ve had the chance to communicate._

“This is easier in person ya’ know.” Darcy said - she wasn’t whining, whining was for small kids not people who paid bills and had a university education.

“Yep. Good thing you’re not here then. It’s important to learn new things and practice things that are hard.”

“What that from that guy online that said ‘practice is horrible’?”

“No. ‘Perfect practice makes perfect’ and ‘perfection is horrible’ are the quotes you are thinking of. And also possibly ‘repetition is hard’.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Dumpling, stop delaying.”

“Right! Okay, have you talked to Uncle Mike recently?”

“No Darcy, use perfect practice - start with the most likely situation.”

And on it went. Each step encouraged or criticised as Darcy drew herself closer and closer to the correct conclusion. In days long gone past when Darcy had first been learning the basics of deduction, Dad (or Sherlock as he’d been known at the time) had spent well over an hour coaching her through a case of theft to a logical conclusion. At the end of which he’d said,

“Good job Darcy, very logical conclusion. Completely wrong, but it’s understandable….” Darcy had refused to even try doing deductions until Papa (John, at the time) had explained to Sherlock that it wasn’t nice or helpful to do it like that. He’d explained to Sherlock that he had to help push her in the right direction. Since then Dad would still let her flounder for a bit, but never go completely wrong. So, as the ten minutes she’d expected to be talking to them passed, she eventually reached:

“Okay, so Uncle Mike knows from an old friend who _is_ a spy-slash-agent of something-slash-someone but _isn’t_ working for Uncle Mike. This person most likely has personal connections to _either_ someone in the tower, _or_ Hydra.”

“Yes.”

“That’s all you have.” Darcy deadpanned. That was a lot of work for not a lot of answer.

“Yes.”

“Gee Dad, thanks.”

“Darcy,” Dad said, using his ‘I’m trying very hard not to insult you’ voice, “what information did you start with?”

“Uncle Mike is coming to Christmas.” That was easy, it was one of the first pieces that Dad had drilled into Darcy, look at where you start, look at where you’ve ended.

“Where did you end?”

“Uncle Mike has a friend in Hydra or in the Avengers.”

“Not entirely accurate but a reasonable summary. As I’ve always told you Darcy, it’s not magic. You need information to reach the answer. And some of it is information I just don’t have.”

“Right. Sorry Dad.”

“Thank you for the apology Darcy. And while you worked admirably, and have reached the conclusion I personally think is most likely, there is another possibility.” Dad didn’t even wait for an answer, “he might just want to see you for Christmas,” they both quietly scoffed. Uncle Mike was, like Dad, of the belief that there was nothing particularly special about Christmas and that if he wanted to give Darcy something, or wanted to see her, he didn’t have to wait for a useless annual event. “Now, John wants to talk to you while I take a shower. I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye Dad, love you!”

“I love you too Dumpling.” Darcy listened to Dad passing over the phone then, heard Papa’s smiling voice in her ear, reassuring as always.

“That was very impressive Darcy,”

“Thanks Papa,” Darcy liked that Papa always had a kind word to share about her deductions, even if they were slow or flawed.

“Now, as I was saying, Sherlock, Hamish and I will all be coming for at least a week. I might stay a couple days more, Dad will as well if I have a say in it.” That meant there was at least a 75% chance that they would both stay, the exception being if there was a _very_ interesting crime that ‘just could’t wait. “Mycroft is coming for somewhere between one and three days and is bringing Greg with him.”

“Oh! Have they finally gotten officially together?”

“No. But, Greg’s divorce has been finalised and he’s currently sleeping in one of Mycroft’s guest rooms.”

“Huh.” Darcy said, she wanted to be happy. But. They were her uncles - neither by blood but they may as well have been, and it was fucking awkward.

“To be honest that’s my feeling on it as well - still.” It had been a topic of a few awkward sentences for years, drawing to the seemingly inevitable conclusion of Uncle Mike and Uncle Greg retiring in bliss together to enjoy their old age eating cake and going on slow paced runs. Or whatever it was they did together - she’d really rather not know. “Anyway, Darcy,” Papa said, drawing her mind back to the topic of actual conversation, “should I have Mycroft get us all rooms at a fancy hotel?”

“Uhhh. For the sake of everyone’s sanity Uncle Mike and Uncle Greg should definitely get a hotel.”

“… Agreed…”

“But I should have enough room for you, Dad, and Hamish by the start of next week.”

“Really? That’s fast.”

“Yeah, I mentioned it to Tony and somehow ended up with my own floor.”

“Wow. Really?”

“Yep.”

“That. It-“

“Yep, it’s weirdly reminisce of Uncle Mike when he was trying to figure out this whole ‘family thing’.”

“Okay then.”

“Yep.” Darcy drawled. There was a slam and an enthused “John!” and she knew their call had finished.

“I love you Darcy.”

“I love you Papa, I’ll talk to you later.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think of my way of writing deductions??? 
> 
> This was supposed to be the first chapter of what I'm currently calling the 'Holiday Extravaganza' but ended up being. Whatever the hell that was. More set up I guess. 
> 
> This chapter is only here because of the lovely comments of:  
> nyurla, Dances_With_Vulcans, harrylee94, tptigger, nemohana, Carol (guest), and corinne (guest). Particular shout out to nyurla: do you see the awkward Mystrade that's coming - do see what you've doomed your fellow readers to!


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